Many expatriates living in China receive housing stipends that cover at least part of the monthly cost of rental here. In expensive cities like Shanghai, getting your housing stipend can be essential. Your reimbursement, though, requires that you provide a “fapiao” (official receipt from the government) which shows that taxes have been paid. The tax rate right now is 5%, so your fapiao of, say, 8,000 RMB costs your landlord 400 RMB. Your employer then uses the fapiao for some kind of tax benefits in reimbursing you. If you don’t provide a proper fapiao, you generally won’t get your housing stipend.

A few things can go wrong on this process. Make sure you know exactly what name your company requires to be on the fapiao. For me, it has to be the proper legal name of my company, not my name and not other commonly used versions of my employer’s name. One time my landlord bought several months’ worth of fapiaos all at once, but used the corporate name I pointed to on my business card instead of the official legal name, and I ended up having to pay for new fapiaos out of my pocket. In that process, though, I learned that getting fapiaos involves going to a local tax office, showing your rental agreement and your passport, and then simply paying 5% of your rent to buy the fapiao.

Also make sure you get fapiaos by the month. Your company will generally want one for each month, not one for three months at a time, even if you pay your rent once every three months as I do.

A more troubling problem you may encounter is fake fapiaos. Fake receipts? Yep, it happens, and is an easy way for an unscrupulous person to make some quick money. This may happen when a real estate agent, after closing the deal for your apartment, offers to save the landlord the trouble of getting fapiaos. The agent may have a friend allegedly at the tax bureau who can help you get the fapiaos easily. If the agent doesn’t need a copy of your rental agreement, that’s a clear sign that something is wrong. I don’t know if the seemingly official fapiaos are printed on stolen receipt paper from government offices or are just really good forgeries, but they look like the real thing and businesses may accept them and reimburse you, but if there is an audit or careful investigation, they may discover that the fapiaos are fake and you may then be denied your reimbursement.

If you are getting fake fapiaos, let your landlord know. It can hurt their credit and their reputation with the government. It may end up hurting you. The crooks who are stealing your money (and stealing tax money from China) with fake fapiaos need to be stopped. Of course, your agent or whoever gave you the fake fapiaos will be shocked that their friend in the tax office made some kind of error. Maybe they knew, maybe they didn’t, and maybe it was all an innocent mistake, but given the easy money to be made, chances are someone is just pocketing the money, and not pocketing it accidentally.

Unfortunately, one acquaintance of ours says that she got fake fapiaos by going to the fapiao office her business told her to use. I think this was an official fapiao office but I need to confirm that. Whether it was an accident or intentional theft, you need to recognize that there is a possibility that the fapiao you get is fake. Check to make sure they are legit, and try not to get too many months of fapiaos all at once in case there is a problem with them.

Two good friends of mine were traveling in Beijing recently and took out several thousand RMB from a Bank of China ATM machine in the lobby of a popular international hotel chain with a great reputation. Later that day, when they used their cash to pay a cabbie, he checked the bill they gave him and declared it was fake. They tried several other bills and all were fake. They didn’t believe the cabbie. They later went to a restaurant and had their bills rejected. They went back to the hotel and confirmed that the bills were fake, but the hotel said it wasn’t their fault and the bank claimed that it wasn’t possible for fake bills to be issued from their machine.

I’ve read of others encountering fake bills from ATMs, usually with the insistence of the bank that it is not possible. I’m afraid it can happen, though it has never happened to me. But now when I get cash out, before I leave the ATM, I hold a few up to the light to see if they are watermarked. The fake bills my friends had were lightly printed in the watermark area so it looked like a watermark, but holding it up to the light produces a much different effect.

Check a few bills at your ATM machine to reduce the risk of getting a big wad of fakes. Just my two cents.

Many Internet users in China are finding that the foreign websites they want to access are frequently redirected to an unwanted URL, most commonly WKPG.org. This can be extremely frustrating. This appears to be coming through local Internet Service Providers and may involve some sophisticated javascript that is injected into your URL request to redirect some portion of your requests. It is not a virus that anti-virus software can detect, though it is certainly an example of clever malware that is somehow injected into your browsing.

After several tries, here is what has worked for me and it has helped some friends. First, clear your browser cache and close your browser. Second, flush your DNS cache. Third, restart your computer. The DNS cache flush may be most important, so if you want a fast fix, try it first (after closing your browser) and see if that helps. But I suggest doing all 3 steps. Search for details of how to clear the cache of your specific browser and how to flush the DNS cache for your computer. On Windows machines, for example, the proper approach may be to run CMD as administrator (press the Windows button, search for CMD, then right click on the CMD program and select “run as administrator”) and then type “ipconfig /flushdns” (without the quotes). On my Mac, I had to run terminal and then enter “sudo dscacheutil -flushcache” (without the quotes). Check for your operating system.

But what is going on? Some article at Reddit (here and here) explore the possibility of this being some kind of practice of new capabilities related to the Great Cannon. I’m not sure. But it’s ugly and frightening that it can happen so easily. It may be that using https:// connections for added security could help prevent the problem in the future. That’s just a guess.

Ever since my visit to Italy a year ago, I’ve been on a quest for good gelato, and have found a couple of fairly good brands here that draw upon Italian know-how.

Gelato was on my agenda following an intellectual property conference in Shanghai, the IP Business Congress Asia 2014, held Dec. 8-9. My wife and I took an IP lawyer from the States and his wife to dinner at the beautiful and delicious TMSK in Xintiandi. After dinner, the lawyer and I wanted to try some gelato, so we went west to Danshui Road to visit a Creme Milano gelato shop, a gelato chain in Shanghai where I’ve had some excellent gelato several times in the past.

When we entered the store, something seemed a little different. No, a lot different. The gelato bins, normally full and carefully groomed, looked sloppy and the trays were mostly empty. What remained looked rather like old relics. We did the best we could by finding a couple of flavors to order from the few surviving bins, but the flavor and texture was unimpressive and the servings were unusually small and stingy. What had happened? Were sales so poor in our cooler weather that the store had just given up and failed to keep up appearances? I was let down.

The next day, I had lunch with another friend and mentioned the bad gelato experience. He knew the people running the business or at least helping to run it. He said he would them give my feedback. He called later that day to tell me surprising news from the owner: the gelato store we had visited was a rogue shop that no longer was getting its product from the authentic source as they were supposed to. I don’t know if the product we had was leftover original gelato or some fake gelato or ice cream from another source. But it wasn’t what I was expecting and what I would find again at the mother store on South Shaanxi Road.

After I sent an email to the owner of a gelato brand in Shanghai about my disappointing experience in the rogue shop and their need to take action to protect their brand from being tarnished, the owner invited me to come to the mother store at 434 Shaanxi South Road in Shanghai’s beautiful French Concession area. We were warmly greeted by the store manager and marveled at the contrast between what we could see in front of us and what we had seen in the rogue shop.

Jeff in front of the mother store of Le Creme Milano

The difference in taste was even more impressive. Gelato is not just another name for ice cream. There are large differences in method of preparation, the ingredients, and even the temperature it is served at. Gelato is more like a rich, very thick fluid rather than the fluffy solid of common ice cream. It takes skill and artistry to make it right, and what a delight it was to encounter real gelato once again. Ahhh!

Real gelato, fresh and delicious, at the South Shaanxi Road station, across from the Shanghai Culture Square.

We ordered some gelato after sampling several heavenly flavors. I ordered a small cup with a little pistachio flavor and a little blueberry yogurt. The small cup was packed to hold about as much as possible, nearly overflowing with goodness, unlike the miserly, well-below-the-rim portion I received in a cup of the same size at the rogue shop. Both flavors were unforgettable. To my dismay, though, after we received the gelato, the manager refused to take our payment. What kind treatment! It was my birthday, but they didn’t know that in giving me this perfect birthday gift on a little birthday adventure.

Experience real gelato at a real Le Creme Milano store in Shanghai. There may be one or more rogue shops out there selling inferior product, based on what I experienced and learned from the owner. How disappointing that there are stores (at least one) with the nameplate of Le Creme Milano that aren’t selling the real product. I hope the other Creme Milanos in town are legit. One way to check is to email the store using their contact page at http://www.lecrememilano.com/#!contact-uk/c2q4.

A small cup with a generous portion of gelato at the mother store on South Shaanxi.

Golden Jaguar is a well-known chain offering a large buffet. Unfortunately, after the disturbingly poor experience a large group of us encountered there recently, I won’t be going back. A group of about 200 or so people made reservations for a special dinner there. Some who had been to Golden Jaguar before were really looking forward to the buffet with numerous tasty items. We paid 200 RMB per person, apparently a little more than the normal buffet rate in the main area on the first floor. They put our large group on the sixth floor to give us a big room of our own, pretty much the whole floor, but they wouldn’t let us go down to the first floor to access the good stuff. Instead, they brought in a few large bins of very ordinary, uninteresting food. It was actually the buffet in China that I can remember where I left hungry because there was so little worth eating, and so little of what looked good.

One girl at our table looked really depressed. I asked what was wrong and found out that she had been to the main buffet on the first floor with numerous delicious items and had really been looking forward to a special evening here, but now was gravely disappointed with the low-quality food being brought to us. I asked the floor manager if she could be allowed to go down to the first floor and get some real food. He gave us some story about how we had a special rate for the room and this did not include access to the first floor. Sigh.

The food they brought came in a few large bins that were often empty. It was usually cold, with no devices to keep anything warm. What surprised me was how inept their system was for providing the food. For over 200 people, the food was presented on a single line of tables and they only allowed people to queue up in a single line on one side. This resulted in a ridiculously slow line, complicated by the fact that the bins they brought were too small and quickly depleted, at which point people in the line often just stood and waited until a refill eventually came, making it all the more insufferable.

The fish was cheap, unpalatable sardines or saury. The chicken was cold, boring, plain whole chicken whacked into boney pieces. There was flavorless beef and broccoli, cold. The crab was perhaps the highlight for appearance but there was so little edible meat that it did little to abate hunger. Some fried rice. A salad that was often empty. Tasteless cheap little fluffy cake pastries for desert. Lukewarm Sprite or Coke as the only beverages. There was a tray of smoked salmon, enough to serve about 10 or 12 people per refill, that was usually empty. Some cold shrimp (tender, though) and corn was provided as a salad. That dish was OK, but overall it was something of a miserable meal, given the fact that we knew we were being poorly treated, even ripped off, and that for the same price or less we should have been able to eat a great meal below. Sigh.

There were also some “sushi rolls” that were just rice and radish or other veggies. These sliced rolls came with a safety problem: some were still wrapped in thin cellophane that guests would ingest if they didn’t notice and peel it off before eating their slice. After someone on my table apparently ate one, I pointed this potential danger out to a worker, who blew me off by saying that the plastic was necessary to prepare the sushi. There was not an attitude of serving the customer that night! I went to someone more senior an explained the problem again in great detail, asking repeatedly to make sure he understood that yes, this was a safety issue and should be resolved. Nothing happened for a while, but later I did see that the rolls they brought had the plastic off.

I feel that they really took advantage of our group. If that is their attitude toward customers, I won’t be back.

Buying an iPhone 6 and especially an iPhone 6 Plus in China is extremely difficult. You can’t just walk into an Apple store to buy one. You have to first go online and compete against untold thousands to reserve one of the few to be sold each day. This makes it something of a lottery that begins each day at 8 AM and ends shortly thereafter. I’ve wanted to get one for a few weeks now but there didn’t seem to be much hope, though I did have a shot at a relatively less popular black iPhone 6 with the lowest amount of memory offered (16 GB)–not many are rushing to buy that one. But for an iPhone 6 Plus, forget it. And for either phone in the wildly popular gold color, you can totally forget it, unless you want to pay a huge premium for one smuggled in from Hong Kong or somewhere.

Buying an iPhone in the US is a little cheaper and easier than in China, but there’s the risk that the phone won’t work in China. Apple does not yet sell factory unlocked phones in the US, according to Apple’s website (Nov. 2014), and phones need to be unlocked to work here. Unlocking might be possible but is a hassle and risk if something goes wrong. Further, according to tech support at China Mobile, only models designed for China have chips compatible with the Chinese 4G network, and typical American models just won’t work. That’s what they told me AFTER I bought a phone in the US that didn’t seem to work here. The Verizon model I had bought, model A1522, had no hope. And that’s what Apple tech support also told me when I called from China as a frustrated new customer. But my phone is working great now. Turns out the Verizon phone may have been the perfect one to buy in the US. Here’s my story.

I was at a conference in Atlanta, Georgia last week, and on the last day of my event, my Samsung cell phone died. The third Samsung device of mine to die in the past couple of months! I have had it for 3.5 years, so it’s been OK, but suddenly I could do nothing with it since the touch screen function quit working completely. I resolved to try even harder to buy an iPhone when I got back to China, but later that day on my way back to my hotel, I wandered into the Perimeter Center Mall to buy a few items needed for my life in China, and to my surprise found that they had an Apple store there. Hmm, I though, maybe I can ask about an iPhone 6 Plus and see if they know how to get it to work in China.

I found a helpful agent who told me that they did have the iPhone 6 Plus in stock, though I’d have to wait in line for an hour or so to get one after reserving it. I was willing. But I asked if it would work in China. Hmm, not sure. He checked with some other people and came back to tell me that the Verizon phone–presumably “locked” in to Verizon’s network–was the one that people were having “the most luck with,” though he couldn’t guarantee it would work. Should I risk buying one?? I was feeling a little desperate and was tired of using inadequate gadgets that wasted my time with failures and glitches, so I had concluded I needed to improve my odds by going with an iPhone and wanted the larger Plus model so it could replace the Samsung tablet I was carrying with me all the time for help in translating Chinese. With the glimmer of hope the Apple agent gave me, I decided to buy. It just seemed like something I was destined to do that day, with my Samsung phone having failed just a couple hours earlier and an Apple store being right where I was, with the phone I had been trying to buy actually in stock. A little over an hour later, I was holding an iPhone 6 Plus with 64 Gig in my hands–a beautiful golden iPhone 6 Plus, a legendary rarity in China.

I already had a 4G SIMM card from China Mobile that I placed in the device, switching out the Verizon card. I figured I would have to wait until I was in China to activate the card. People at my work had given me instructions on how to activate it, which basically involved calling China Mobile (10086 in Shanghai) and giving them my company name in Chinese, an account number, and my cell phone number. Meanwhile, I was happy with how the phone worked through the Internet and how easily it uploaded most of the apps and date I already had on my old iPad 1.

When I got back to China, I nervously called China Mobile and gave them my information. They said they had initiated the activation process and the card should be active in 5 minutes. Then I asked if there would be any trouble since this phone was purchased in the US. They asked for the model number engraved on the back of the phone. Just about the smallest, faintest microengraving I’ve ever seen, but with magnification I could barely make out the model: A1522. Sorry, they told me, that phone won’t work in China. You’re toast. Ugh. 10 minutes later, the phone still showed no service. Then a little later, the card on my old Samsung device showed no service also–it had been deactivated as they activated the new card, but it apparently wasn’t going to work with the network in China. I called Apple tech support and after being put on hold about 3 times, finally was told that there wasn’t much hope for me. Would I be able to exchange the phone? For that, I’d have to call the store in the US directly and see what they said. They were then closed and I’d have to wait to learn my fate. I knew the Apple stores in China won’t touch phones bought in the US, so there would be no hope of exchanging it here for a model that would work. Was feeling pretty frustrated. During that hour or two of checking with Apple, I checked my phone a couple of times and still it showed no service. Restarted a couple of times. Still no service.

After I had pretty much given up all hope and felt like a fool for plopping down roughly $900 for phone that wouldn’t work, I began wondering if maybe the problem was at the 4G level, and if I used a card designed for a lower system like 3G or 2G, maybe it would work in China. So I went over to ask someone if they thought that might be possible. They asked to see my phone, which I had turned off. When I turned it back on to let them see how it worked, to my amazement, it no longer said “no service” but in fact was able to make and receive calls. Amazing!

Since then it’s been performing beautifully. I can call, receive calls, do Facetime calls even while riding in a subway tunnel, access the Internet, use VPN, translate Chinese, study Chinese flashcard, receive and send email, read books, and even monitor how many steps I’ve taken. It’s a fabulous gadget that eliminates my need to carry a tablet and a phone. It’s big enough for my aging eyes to read well but small enough to fit in my pocket. So based on my experience, it seems like a full-price Verizon phone is the ticket. Appears to nbe already unlocked and ready to work with a 4G SIMM card in China, but give it time, and be sure to activate it through China Mobile. I don’t know if other carriers will give the same results. Maybe other phones will. And maybe I was just extremely lucky and your experience will differ. Let me know what you hear and experience.

We recently upgraded our Internet service to the fastest available: 100 Mbps service for 248 RMB a month. Even with that high speed, we noticed that accessing foreign websites was still painfully slow and unreliable. When we turned on ExpressVPN, our generally good VPN service, the speed was even worse and was essentially blocked, or so it seemed on many days.

Then I learned about China Telecom’s VIP service for foreign websites. This service costs an extra 50 RMB per month and gives you “more stable” access to websites in the US, Japan, Europe, and Hong Kong. Desperate. we tried it, and it has made a huge difference. Foreign websites now upload much faster. We still need VPN for sites like Facebook, but that also seems much faster than before.

To change your service, you need to be on their monthly billing plan. We were on a prepaid plan, having prepaid for a year, so we needed to make a change. How we got on their strange prepaid system is a long story of itself: someone in our real-estate agent’s company handled this and possibly tried to rip-us off, paying for the lowest-speed service instead of the highest and pocketing the money. Only we caught the “mistake” and insisted on correcting did the upgrade happen, and then they only prepared for one month and possibly tried to pocket the difference again. We finally got all or nearly all of the money we had given to show up in our Telecom account. Don’t let intermediaries do this for you! Our mistake.

To switch to monthly billing, you would think it should just take a phone call and the flip of a digital switch. Nope. I had to go a special office in person–not the closest one, but one that is authorized to handle the VIP account. That office is at 500 Jiangsu Road, close Yan An Road. It’s inside an electronic store on the second floor. Right next to the escalator is a round desk with an English speaking young man working there, and he was great.

To get the VIP account, I had to cancel my entire previous account and have a new line installed. That meant a big service fee or getting a year-long plan. Since I heard that 50 Mbps with the VIP service was better than 100 Mbps without, I accepted a special deal they had on 50 Mbps (no similar deal for the 100 Mbps unless I would take a two-year plan). So now I’m paying about 150 a month plus 50 for the VIP service, less than the 289 a month I was paying for the 100 Mbps service. They had to come and install a new line and put in a new cable modem. But the new service with VIP magic is definitely better. Finally, we can use the Internet, even in the evening, and access foreign websites with acceptable speed. We even were able to watch a movie on Netflix. Wow, it’s a new world for us here in China.

We had 1100 in our account that was closed. To get a refund, we had to take our old modem back in with my passport and apply for a refund. The same guy was very helpful. They will call us in a few days when I can come in and get my cash. They cannot just put the money into my account. That, I’m afraid, would be far too easy. But overall, the process wasn’t bad and I’m delighted with the mysterious yet effective VIP service.

Some folks at ShanghaiExpat.com discuss this as “GFW-free” service. No, it is not free of the Great Firewall. VPN is still needed if you want to access things like Netflix or Facebook. But you might have much better results, I think, than you are getting now. If you are about to abandon hope because of slow Internet in China, try the VIP service from China Telecom.

The Yili Road metro station on Line 10 puts you close to some really great places to eat. This is a beautiful area next to one of Shanghai’s prettiest little parts, New Hongqiao Park, easily accessible from Exit 4. If you take Exit 3, you pass under Hongqiao Road and come out at the base of the Takashimaya Mall. Along the short walk to the mall are several restaurants with desserts and other food, and then as you enter the first floor of the mall, there is a good selection of places with fast food, curries, and snacks, including Honey Moon Desserts. But for elegant and fun dining, go up to the 7th floor of the mall. There you will find Rockstar Italian, a variety of Japanese places, hotpot, and other selections.

A short walk from the station at outside the northeast end of the park, at the confluence of Yili Road and Yan An Road, is Jiadun Square (嘉顿广场) a great complex with numerous restaurants in two adjacent rounded buildings. This includes the famous Element Fresh, a fun Italian place called Gusto, and numerous Korean and Japanese places. Some are quite expensive, but others are great bargains. In the great bargain category is one of our favorite places, Yuli (Yu Ri in Japanese), on the 3rd floor of the northernmost building. There you can get a set meal at dinner with great Japanese steak and onions, plus several side dishes, for 65 RMB (or 55 RMB if you skip the side dishes). I had Soba noodles with beef for 55 RMB, and we also ordered a side of sushi with 6 large, beautiful pieces of different items for 98 RMB. Some of the best sushi I’ve ever had.

Give Yili Road area a try!

By Jeffrey Lindsay|
2014-08-02T02:18:46+00:00 August 2nd, 2014|Categories: China|Comments Off on YiLi Road Area on Line 10: Great Shanghai Dining Experiences Abound

Now that we’ve moved out to the Gubei/Hongqiao area in Shanghai, we are close to the large and popular Carrefour grocery store. We’ve been there 3 times now, but we’ve decided to shun it as much as we can now that we’ve seen how consistently high the prices area and how iffy the quality can be.

The high prices are my main complaint–many things are 20% to 50% or more what you would pay at E-Mart and maybe twice what you might pay if you shop around a little more. But price is not the only problem. We’ve had some quality problems already.

Produce purchased on Saturday in several cases went bad by Sunday. I could tell it was getting on in age when I bought it, but having to throw vegetables away after one day is ridiculous. We found their baked bread quality to be poor (burned flavor from overcooking). Staff are not that helpful (likely to give you wrong directions or just point you in a general direction without really helping you).

Food is not the only problem we’ve had. A DVD player we purchased was dead out of the box and had to be returned, but returning was difficult because the staff person in the electronics area had us pay her cash and she put it on her card to get credit for the purchase. Took a lot of talking, but finally we were able to get a refund. Also, when you need a fapiao (for example, some people need to get them and turn them in to their employer to help them get some kind of tax benefits I guess), they take and keep your entire receipt so all you have is the fapiao that you might have to turn into the office. If something needs to be replaced, you won’t have your proof of purchase anymore. Good luck. Other stores like E-Mart let you keep the receipt when you get a fapiao.

On the plus side, their fresh herbs were fresh (ah, great mint for my favorite Brazilian pineapple-mint drink) and reasonably priced for the quality. And another big plus for Carrefour in Gubei is the Food Republic food court on the first floor with a dozen or so great places to eat at reasonable prices, including one of my favorite gelato/ice cream places, Ice Season, where natural mint is my flavoite flavor Not too sweet, and perfectly flavored.

On the down side, getting home from Carrefour is a chore if you want to take a taxi. There is along taxi line but very few taxis coming by. Since most of the people there are going short distances to get home, fares will be low, so cabbies aren’t motivated to go there. It’s about a 10-minute walk to the Shuicheng Road subway station on Line 10. Much easier to use that if you can.

But for better deals and fresher produce, go to your local wet market. Or try other grocers or other supermarkets like E-Mart at Laoximen. Much better prices there, and generally good quality.

Recently we had some virtually miraculous evenings with special guests where a visit to a restaurant was memorable, remarkable, and far beyond our expectations. Three of the most enjoyable of these events occurred at TMSK in Xintiandi, Banana Leaf at the Super Brands Mall at Lujiazui (floor 6 or 7), and Whampoa Club in Three on the Bund. Of these three, for our next special night out, TMSK is the one I’m most likely to return to.

The Whampoa Club has beautiful art-deco design inside with a great view of the Bund from the 5th floor of Three on the Bund (3 Guandong Street). Beautiful and fun just to be there. The menu is horrifically expensive, in my opinion, but the set menu on the Chef’s Sampling Menu is more affordable. That menu is 289 per person. But note: you must reserve this ahead of time. If you show up, even with reservations, and have not specifically reserved the sampling menu ahead of time (preferably 24 hours or more ahead), they may turn you down. In my case, I called on the same day to make reservations for the evening, and asked about their sampling menu. They said yes, it’s available, no problem. But when our party of four arrived, we were told that the sampling menu was not available and we’d have to order off the menu. I explained my situation and asked them to reconsider. The waiter had to check with management, and came back a few minutes later saying yes, we could. That was a relief. Otherwise we would have walked.

The food that came was highly impressive and tasty. My favorite may have been a large, succulent prawn in batter with a sauce over it. Really delicious and filling. The many samples that came left us full and surprised at the variety of flavors and textures available in this high-end Chinese place.

Banana Leaf at the Super Brands Mall surprised us with the quality of food but mostly with the beautiful private room we were able to walk into without reservations, while dozens were lined up waiting to get in. I had a group of 7 on a Saturday afternoon in Liujiazui. After walking tour of Lujiazui Park, we went to Super Brands Mall where we were planning to try Bellagio’s on the top floor. But one floor before we got there, I saw Banana Lead and, recalling a positive experience in the past, thought maybe my group might like this instead. While there were many people lined up outside waiting to get in, when we told them we had a group of 7 and asked how long the wait would be, they said there was no wait, just go on in, What? But there was a large, beautiful private room that was just waiting for a large group to come–I guess all the people waiting were couples or other small groups too small for the private room. So all 7 of us were seated immediately in luxury. We ordered and food was coming right away. Everything we ordered was delicious. We have a real feast for around 70 RMB per person.

TMSK is one of the most beautiful and interesting places to eat at. They have Chinese and Western items, but I think the Chinese dishes are most outstanding. The roast beef is so tender and delicious. Mama Yang’s noodles surprised us all with the flavor — so much so that we ordered a second helping. We had a lot of food and beverages, including wine for one of our guests, so the total bill was higher than normal, 790 RMB for 4, but it was worth it. TMSK is the one that I’m most anxious to try again in the near future. The fact that I really like the people there is part of the draw. And so beautiful.

I previously reported a remarkable IP-backed financial deal in China, where Tralin Paper (Quanlin Paper in Chinese, though they use www.tralin.com for their website) used their IP portfolio to back a loan for 8 billion RMB, around US$1.3 billion. Now news from the office of Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia reveals what Tralin is doing with that money. See reports at TAPPI.org and MFRTech.com. Tralin Paper, renaming themselves as Tranlin Paper for some reason, has just signed a deal with the State of Virginia, obtaining state support as Tralin/Tranlin/Quanlin invests $2 billion to create a new environmentally friendly paper mill and create over 2,000 US jobs. In a departure from the stereotypical view of Chinese companies stealing American jobs and IP, here is an innovative Chinese company that has created and protected their own IP, used innovative financial tools (and plenty of solid Chinese guanxi) to obtain massive financing based on that IP, and then brought their money and their technology to the US to create many jobs. At least some parts of this story are going to be repeated in many ways in days to come. The old paradigm of China lacking IP or lacking valuable IP is fading.

Watch for China to surprise many pundits who decry its lack of IP and innovation. Many Western companies are going to be startled at the tsunami of innovation and IP that will come from the Middle Kingdom, which is rushing to become the epicenter of global innovation and IP value creation. China still has a long ways to go in overcoming its problems and strengthening innovation and IP, but the trends here are remarkable and should not be discounted. Meanwhile, we should welcome stories like Tranlin’s, and watch for many more to come. But for some US companies, this will mean even tougher competition that won’t be easily avoided with restrictive, protective tariffs or antidumping legislation.

When you are moving in China, there are several things to do to prepare.

First, review your current rental contract and make sure you give adequate notice and comply with other terms needed to ensure you have a good chance of getting your rental deposit back. It’s often two months of rent, so you don’t want to lose this money. Be a good tenant, give adequate notice before the end of the contract so they have time to find a new tenant (if leaving mid-year, you may not be able to get your deposit back at all). Make sure you leave the place clean and handle outstanding bills for utilities (this may include leaving enough money in the hands of the landlord to cover estimated costs, or taking other steps).

Second, prepare well in advance with the supplies you will need such as boxes, tape, bubble wrap, scissors, string, etc. If you move, you may want to get a lot of boxes. These can be hard to find on sale, but you can get them at B&Q for about 15 RMB each. Cheaper is to track down a recycler carrying loads of boxes and boxboard down the street. He’ll sell you boxes for maybe 2 RMB each. Cheaper still is to go to department stores or other places discarding boxes and take away used boxes for free. Keep some boxes around the house–they often come in handy and can be a pain to find when you need them. Also prepare by getting bubble wrap, newspaper or wrapping paper, and lots of good packaging tape, which isn’t always easy to find. When you see it, get some well in advance. You can also order boxes and tape online at Taobao.

Third, arrange for help such as a moving service to get you and your stuff to your new place. This often involves using a local moving service. Order a truck that is bigger than what you think you need so you can avoid two trips. A medium truck going across town might cost you 700 RMB if just one or two people are needed. Since we were moving a piano, we had a large truck and a crew of four, which costs us more than we expected: 1700 RMB. But it was a solid half-day of work for four people, and the extra-large truck had a 500 RMB surcharge. But had we negotiated ahead of time as we should have, I think we might have only paid 1300 RMB or maybe 1400. Lesson learned, maybe. While arranging for moving muscle, it’s also wise to hire an ayi or two (maids) to provide cleaning muscle for your new place and your old.

Fourth, pack early. Don’t wait until the night before the move. Your stuff is important and you don’t want to lose it or misplace it through careless packing. Mark boxes so you know what is where. Wrap delicate things carefully and be prepared for rough treatment. Make sure you don’t take things that are part of the apartment, either. Spend a few hours every night for a week to get prepared, if you can.

My experiences in moving in China have been limited to Shanghai, but the principles should apply to other large cities as well.

About Jeff Lindsay

Jeff Lindsay lives in Shanghai but has roots in Utah and Wisconsin. His interests include China and Chinese (the language and the food), intellectual property, chemical engineering, magic (a hobby), reading, writing, travel, photography, and his LDS faith.

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